Jeff Chan PHOTOS BY TRISTAN TAMAYO/INQUIRER.net
Wendell McKines threw the ball up in the air and let the seconds of an improbable Rain or Shine comeback tick away. At the other end of the floor, his head coach Yeng Guiao had his both arms raised in jubilation.
Guiao had every reason to celebrate after the Elasto Painters jarred the San Miguel Beermen with a 113-110 come-from-behind win in Game 2 of their 2015 PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals series on Saturday night.
“I’ve been coaching a long time in this league and this is probably one of the most amazing comebacks, amazing games I’ve ever coached,” Guiao said after his team rose from 20 points down in the third quarter against a team who made 21 3-pointers.
“We survived the incredible shooting of Lassiter. Not only of Lassiter but of the whole San Miguel team,” Guiao added. “We just weathered the storm, we just composed ourselves, we just fought back. This is a God-given game. Only God can script a game like this. We put our hearts into it, the players worked hard but it’s only God that can write a story this way.”
McKines played with reckless abandon and not even the Beermen’s avalanche of triples could keep him from willing the Painters back from the abyss. The hardworking import did it all with 53 points on 16-of-23 shooting from the field, 17 rebounds, five assists and five blocks.
“I have to pay tribute to Wendell McKines, his big heart, to the players who hung on and played with a lot of character,” Guiao said of his blue-collar worker of an import, who had 33 points alone in the second half.
Beermen swingman Marcio Lassiter fired on all cylinders, making 10 of his 13 attempts from long range, but it was the Painters’ Jeff Chan who made the triple that mattered most.
Chan buried the game-winning 3-pointer in front of his team’s bench with 7.6 seconds left off a steal by McKines before Alex Cabagnot tried but failed to tie the game with Gabe Norwood all over him. McKines secured the rebound and wisely tossed the ball high and away from San Miguel’s basket to let the clock run out.
“A team made of lesser stuff would have been broken down with the torrid shooting that San Miguel showed. I’m proud of how the guys stood up to that torrid shooting by San Miguel,” Guiao said.
“We thought it was a lost game but we just hung in there. What we were trying to do in the last quarter was to fine-tune our defense we are going to use in the next game so if we’re not going to win in this game we just wanted to be better in the next game but it paid dividends for us. It gave us this kind of result,” added Guiao.
It has been a series of comebacks so far through two games. San Miguel won Game 1 last Thursday despite falling behind by 24 points.
Lassiter’s 10 made triples is the most in the playoffs since PBA great Kenneth Duremdes made as many in the 2003 All-Filipino Cup.
The Painters, who trailed, 76-56, midway through the third quarter, played minus their two bigs in Jervy Cruz (left toe) and Beau Belga (right foot).
Former Rain or Shine import Arizona Reid had 33 points and 11 rebounds for the Beermen while Lassiter added a career-high 31 points.
Wendell McKines